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Ken Holland has $16 million of Mike Ilitch's money to spend on the 2011-12 Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland is about to play the hockey version of "Supermarket Sweep."

Ken Holland, the wonderfully mad hockey genius behind the success of the Detroit Red Wings, is poised to spend a fat wad of owner Mike Ilitch's cash in pursuit of Stanley Cup No. 4 since becoming general manager in 1997.

Based on the calculations from wonks at CapGeek.com, Detroit today has $48 million tied up in contracts, leaving the team $16 million under the NHL's $64 million salary for the 2011-12 season — and Holland hasn't been shy in telling the world that the team is going to spend to the limit.

This is why hockey fans elsewhere think dark thoughts about the Red Wings, and refer to them as the "Death Star" and the "Yankees of the NHL."

That spending is a significant reason why Detroit has made the playoffs for 20 consecutive seasons, and why the rest of the league should be especially terrified of Detroit in 2011-12.

Ilitch, who bought the team for $8 million from Bruce Norris in 1982, likes to win, and win a lot. Ilitch also makes heaps of money because Americans love his cheap pizzas, so the money is there to spend on the Red Wings and their siblings, the Detroit Tigers — a team that Ilitch has spent more than $600 million in player salaries since 2006.

He doesn't need to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave when it comes to the Red Wings because the salary cap limits outlays on players. He trusts Holland to spend up to the threshold wisely. And that, as poet Robert Frost wrote, has made all the difference.

Ilitch is a baseball fan first — he was briefly in the Tigers' minor-league organization in the '50s — but his ownership success has come in the NHL, with four Stanley Cups on his shelf.

That success has also come with longtime veteran players, something reminiscient of Al Davis' Oakland Raiders teams of the 1970s that were filled with flakes, goons and a weird batch of cast-off older players that other teams ignored. The wily Davis rode them to Super Bowl victories.

Detroit isn't shy about signing players well into their 30s, and keeping homegrown veterans for a generation. For example, the team re-signed defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, 41, who is the only Wing to have played every game last season. Next season will be his 20th with Detroit, which drafted him in 1989. He'll make $6.2 million, as he did last year (when he recorded 62 points on 16 goals and 46 assists).

So the evidence is there that Detroit won't hesitate to spend cash on players who have proved themselves and have gas left in the tank.

Which brings us to Jaromir Jagr.

After three seasons with Avangard Omsk of Russia's Kontinental League, the 39-year-old Jagr wants to come back to the NHL, where he carved out a hall of fame career.

He reportedly was paid $6 million to play in the depressing, frozen gray wastes of Russia last year, and Detroit is willing to give the Czech about half that to don its sweater on a one-year contract. Holland apparently was in talks with Jagr and his agent, Petr Svoboda (who I remember as a helluva defenseman in the Sega Genesis "NHLPA '93"), over the weekend.

A $3 million cap hit on Jagr, who has said Pittsburgh and an unnamed third team are his other choices, doesn't seem like much of a risk with $16 million available. Few serious teams have that much cap space.

Holland also is looking to restock Detroit's blue line as the July 1 free agency deadline approaches.

The Wings lost Brian Rafalski to retirement, although his departure gives the team $6 million in cap space. Ruslan Salei and his $1.1 million contract also is expected to leave as a free agent.

"We're going to aggressive on July 1 looking for a defenseman or two," Holland told reporters. The team also may re-sign unrestricted free-agent defensemen Jonathan Ericsson, who made $900,000 last year.

Also freeing up cap space are the expected departures (willingly or otherwise) of 40-year-old forward Kris Draper ($1.5 million), 41-year-old forward Mike Modano ($1.75 million) and 38-year-old goalie Chris Osgood ($1.4 million), played just 34 games in two seasons because of injuries.

Last season's salary cap was $59.4 million, and that's what Detroit spent. This year's salary floor — the amount team must at least spend on player payroll — is $48 million. For context, the inaugural salary cap in 2005-06 was just $39 million.

This year, the NHLPA was reportedly able to use a one-time five percent escalator as part of the collective bargaining agreement that is set to expire after next season, the Philadelphia Enquirerreported.

Even with max spending and a crappy old arena, the Wings apparently make money. Forbes estimates the team operating income of $15.3 million in 2010 on revenue of $119 million.

Even if they lost money, it wouldn't be a crisis: The Ilitch family fortune comes from its $2.2 billion in annual sales from its Little Caesars pizza chain or the $446 million from Marian Ilitch's MotorCity Casino.